Today, the 16th of August, I attended a demonstration in Dhaka today against the indiscriminate Israeli aggression in Palestine, particularly upon the inhabitants of Gaza. People from all walks of life turned out in large numbers to attend the demo and make their voices heard.
The demonstration was one of the largest in recent history for the Palestinian cause in Bangladesh, and is among a series of demonstrations called by the 20 party alliance, the unofficial opposition alliance of Bangladesh. The alliance is graced by heavy weight parties such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the main opposition party of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the third largest party in the country as evidenced by the recent upazila polls in Bangladesh.
Demonstrators gathered at Naya Paltan in front of BNP central office from early morning for a program that was scheduled to begin at about 3 pm local time. When the program began, the crowds had gathered in their thousands over a huge area spreading from Malibag intersection to Kakrail intersection to Naya Paltan to Fakirapool.
The anger in the people was evident as they chanted against the oppressors in Gaza and furiously waved their flags and rallied steadfast in protest. The rally ended at about 5 pm local time. Here are some of the pictures I took of the rally featuring people from all walks of life who had turned out to demonstrate despite the bad weather and the heavy presence of government security forces, armed with riot gear and equipped with water cannons and APC's.
